The Reliance-BP joint venture on Tuesday bid for the license to retail gas in 15 cities while Indraprastha Gas Ltd put in bids for 13 cities.

Bidding for the biggest city gas distribution licensing round, offering 86 permits for selling CNG and piped cooking gas in 174 districts in 22 states and union territories closes today.

India Gas Solutions Pvt Ltd and Reliance Industries is foraying in city gas distribution as it put in the bid for 15 cities, as per a PTI report.

IGL, which retails CNG in the national capital region, is putting in bids for 13 cities.

The report further stated that Essel Infraprojects Ltd has put in a total of seven bids.

As many as 86 geographical areas (GAs), made by clubbing adjacent districts, are on offer in the 9th city gas distribution (CGD) bidding round.

The GAs cover 24 per cent of the country’s area and 29 per cent of its population.

The round is likely to attract investments of Rs 700 billion, according to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB).

The CGD licenses on offer are for Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh; Ahmednagar in Maharashtra; Ludhiana and Jalandhar in Punjab; Barmer, Alwar, and Kota in Rajasthan; Coimbatore and Salem in Tamil Nadu; Allahabad, Faizabad, Amethi and Rai Bareli in Uttar Pradesh; Dehradun in Uttarakhand and Burdwan in West Bengal.

The bid round is being held on changed parameters after one paisa bids spoilt the initial auction rounds.

Bidders have been asked to quote the number of CNG stations to be set up and a number of domestic cooking gas connections to be given in the first eight years of operation.

The number of CNG dispensing stations proposed to be set up has been assigned 20 per cent weightage.

The sixth round of bidding for 34 cities in 2015 got bids for only 20. The seventh round of bidding done to set up CGD infrastructure in 11 smart cities under smart city mission received only 1 bid.

Seven cities were offered in the 8th round last year but not all cities have been awarded so far.